Q&A: Is my house included in this expansion?
The short answer: yes!
The long answer: The funding from the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the County for this project is derived from federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars. The main goal of this funding from the United States Congress is to expand high-speed broadband access to as many Americans as possible.
The recent COVID pandemic highlighted the necessity for all Americans to have access to stable, high-quality internet for learning, commerce, and general connectivity. Rural areas around the country have historically struggled to obtain excellent internet access. This is generally due to rugged conditions which greatly increase the cost of building these networks combined with lower numbers of potential subscribers which makes the return on investment for internet service providers relatively small.
Therefore, the 8 million dollars from the state, combined with 3 million from the County will make the initial investment in building out this new fiber network more manageable for our ISP partner, The Frankfort Plant Board. They will contribute 5 million dollars and their fiber networking expertise to make this expansion a reality.
Their plan is split into 11 different project areas. Franklin County was extremely lucky to have all 11 areas funded by the state. The maps below show these expansion locations. This means that when the project is complete, in approximately 3 years, the internet will be available to 1,918 currently unserved or underserved households and businesses located in rural Franklin County.
